Chelmsford Chieftains have moved to fill the defensive slot vacated by Carl Greenhous's move to Romford by signing the experienced Lee Cowmeadow.

Cowmeadow, who now lives in Cardiff has previously played for Cardiff Devils, Blackburn Hawks, Kingston Hawks, Fife Flyers, Lancashire Hawks, Fife Flyers, Peterborough Pirates and ended last season with Guidford Flames.

He has racked up well over 350 first class games in his career and scored over 200 points, a superb record for a defenceman.

Being British, Lee is a great asset to Chieftains with the new three GB trained players on the ice at all times rule.

Expected to join

Defenceman Scott Hughes who was expected to sign for Chieftains last week, looks destined not to join the club.

For reasons best known to his former club Invicta Dynamos, Chieftains cannot obtain the necessary release to enable them to register him.

A Chieftains spokesman said: '' As far as we are aware he is not under contract to Dynamos and has not played for them for over a year''.

Lions were easily tamed

NOTTINGHAM LIONS..................................0

CHELMSFORD CHIEFTAINS......................14

(English National Premier League)

Chelmsford Chieftains' first ever visit to a rink in Nottingham last Saturday saw them emphatically beat a young Lions side and in doing so secure their first shut-out of the season.

The huge Superleague stadium seemed a fitting venue for Chieftains' biggest win for several seasons even though the crowd was thin.

Chieftains were in charge right from the outset and it was always going to be how many would they win by.

A goal on 2.40 set up by returnees Duane Ward and Karl Rogers was effortlessly converted by Andy Hannah.

At 5.01 Chieftains made it 2-0 when Rogers and Jake French had a hand in Ward's first goal of the season.

It was to the the young Lions' credit that they kept the score at two until 16.05 even though the visitors had struck the pipework on three occasions, but they finally succumbed to a third goal scored by Chieftains' new boy Lee Cowmeadow after Adam Collins and Scott Stevenson had intercepted on the red line.

Two more goals followed in quick succession f as first Cowmeadow scored his second of the night after good work from Ryan Mair and Stephenson at 17.08, and at 19.12 Hannah netted his second goal.

At 5-0 at the first break, the game was as good as over for Lions.

Chieftains scored a quick fire two goals in just over a minute through a Jamie Randall effort, assisted by Collins and Stephenson at 22.48 and number seven followed at 23.54 when Ward's good work was converted by Hannah to complete his hat-trick.

Chieftains eighth goal came courtesy of a finely struck goal from Shaun Wallis, latching onto a Jake French pass at 30.53.

Sporadic raids

At this point goalkeeper Alan Sutton was replaced by Alan Levers in the home net.

Lions could only muster sporadic raids, which were well mopped up by Chieftains' defence and goalkeeper Simon Smith had to be alert to save one-on-one in the 32nd minute.

Chieftains extended their lead at 35.31when Randall forced in a scrambled effort with the assist going to Richard Whiting.

It was to be the last goal of a period which saw Chieftains outshoot their hosts by 19 to five.

The last period saw a further five unanswered goals for Chieftains as they swept a tiring Lions team aside.

At 41.28 Kyle Dolman made no mistake scoring though Lever's legs, and French was next on the scoresheet at 46.32 after solid approach work from Billy Price and Whiting and at 47.57 Stephenson scored with some ease to make it 12-0.

The first power-play goal of the night followed at 52.28, and it brought Ward's second goal and the final nail was hammered in at 56.24 by defenseman Adam Collins to round off an impressive 14-0 victory for Chieftains.

Man-of-the match awards went to Lions' opening goalie Alan Sutton who had faced 44 shots in 30 minutes and for a solid performance at the back, Jake French picked up the award for Chieftains.

Single goal douses Phoenix

CHELMSFORD CHIEFTAINS.........................1

SWINDON PHOENIX.......................................0

(English National Premier League)

Arguably one of the most thrilling matches seen at Riverside saw the lowest ever score of just one goal, that going to Chieftains.

The win saw Chieftains move ominously into second place in the English Premier League and close the gap on Swindon at the top to just one point.

A bright opening period saw Phoenix slightly edge the first 20 minutes but the scores remained blank thanks to two solid defences and two good goalkeeping performances from Simon Smith and Ron Bertrand.

Slightly spoiled

The second period was slightly spoiled by some 'picky' penalty decisions which served to interrupt some fine flowing hockey.

Chieftains thought they had scored after 30 minutes but found the puck had not crossed the line.

It took a power-play opportunity for the deadlock to be broken and it was to be in Chieftains' favour.

With Canadian Sean Tarr in the penalty box for holding, a three-quarter rink pass out from Lee Cowmeadow found Duane Ward lurking on the Phoenix blue line.

Ward then powered into the zone and buried the puck beyond Bertrand for what proved to be the only goal of the match at 38.45.

The third period opened with Swindon finding the net only for the goal to be wiped out by referee O'Halloran to the relief of the home crowd.

A pulsating period was even, but fate dealt Chieftains a helping hand when former Cardiff Devil player Merv Priest was given a 2+10 penalty for interferrence and misconduct, a misdemenour which saw him take to the ice for only the last minute.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.